Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in GermanyFranz West: Where is my Eight?

Known for his intriguing sculptures, provocative collages, and giant outdoor installations, Franz West (b. 1947) mines the intellectualism of Freud and Wittgenstein.

First seen at the mumok in Vienna, the focus of the thematically structured presentation is the Kombi- Werke [combi-works]. These are mainly installative works in which West repeatedly combined a number of individual pieces into new groups. The combination and recombination of various categories of works such as furniture, sculpture, Passstücke [adaptives], videos, or works on paper, from different creative periods, gives an overview of the whole spectrum of his œuvre.

Thus at the beginning of the exhibition the viewer encounters the Genealogie des Ungreifbaren [The Genealogy of the Intangible] from 1997 in which West shows three of his early Passstücke combined with one of his first chairs in a vitrine. Combi-walls will also be exhibited. For these West collected together diverse works on paper but also sculptural pieces and, with the addition of pieces of furniture, these expand to become room-filling installations as in the case of Kasseler Rippchen. West also repeatedly included works by other artists in this process.

One of the central exhibits is the papier-mâché sculpture Redundanz. It consists of three parts and can be regarded as a significant example of West’s early practice of combination and recombination. First shown in 1986, the artist considered it necessary to supplement the work with another sculpture since one part of the work had been sold against his will. The new version bears the title Reduktion. Since 2011 the mumok collection includes both versions of this work.